1998: John Lott’s seminal book “More Guns, Less Crime”

How we got from the low of 1990 to today is too long a narrative for a simple blog post. Without question, however, much of the foundation for where we stand today is built on the strong civil rights and intellectual foundation that was established in that decade. One particularly notable stone in that early foundation was a book by Dr. John Lott, Jr., “More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws,” first published in 1998 and now in its 3rd Edition. . . .

New for 2016: Lott’s “The War on Guns”

This past year, however, Dr. Lott has published a book that seems to me to be the clearest successor to that seminal work, “More Guns Less Crime.” This new book, “The War On Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies,” brings a new level of sophistication and insight, as well as a greater variety of social and economic perspectives, to the great civil rights debates that continue around the Second Amendment.

“The War on Guns” does more than just update and expand upon the research of the earlier book. It also takes a comprehensive and data based look at the increasingly sophisticated and well-funded propaganda efforts—the “gun control lies”—that continue to be targeted against the rights of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms for personal protection. . . .

The book, however, must also bear at least some of the responsibility for my delay. It’s breadth and depth is absolutely staggering, as is its thorough documentation (the book includes some 437reference citations, roughly two for each substantive page). Frankly, each chapter of the book is worthy of an individual review in its own right, and being a wordy bastard I found it difficult to write a comprehensive review of the book that wouldn’t run roughly as many pages as the book itself. . . .

A “Must-Have” Book for Yourself, Family, Friends . . .

Indeed, you can hardly call yourself informed on these issues and their public policy dynamics–whether you are pro or con private gun ownership and concealed carry–without having read “The War on Guns.” . . .